Dear Raphaël and everybody,
While I also share some skepticism about Flatter, I would like to underline
that the posts on Planet that contain a Flatter button tend to be more about
free software than the others in general. I am much more annoyed by family
albums for instance, and large pictures in general, because then the whole
screen is taken by one post, and it becomes sometimes necessary to scroll a lot
to get to the next one. In comparison, the Flatter button does not each much
space.
Since planet.debian.org is on the menu for the general redesign of our web pages
(http://wiki.debian.org/KallesDesign), one solution would be to provide to the
bloggers a way to mitigate the footprint of all the buttons via CSS.
The one thing that I find difficult to accept is the use of tracers. I expect
debian.org sites to not contain them, nor to use javascript and cookies when
avoidable.
I am also a bit worried that a poll would exacerbate the disagreements rather
than bring a consensus.
And in conclusion, I would like to remind the extraordinary success of non-free
software on the iPhone, which I think can be explained by the easiness of
micropayement through the Apple webstore. Flattr and its uses have a lot of
shortcomings, but go in the direction of a strong need for our communauty. By
rejecting it I think that we do not help to create the conditions for the
appearance of a better alternative plaform.
Have a nice day,
--
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan